Free Republic

Taliban insurgents cut the index fingers off 11 Afghans who participated in this weekend's presidential run-off poll, officials say.

Granite Staters are repeatedly told — by Democratic politicians and the activist left — that voter fraud is a “myth” and that the only effect of voter ID laws is to “suppress” the vote. They repeat that spin even as instances of actual fraud pile up. The latest involves Lorin C. Schneider Jr. of Carver, Mass. It is a fact, documented by records in Hillsborough County Superior Court North, that Schneider has pled guilty to one felony and two misdemeanor charges of wrongful voting. According to the state Attorney General’s office, Schneider voted in Manchester’s Ward 9 in the presidential...

As you know, we are committed to overturning Minnesota election law that enables ineligible individuals to vote in two ways: by not determining the eligibility of election-day registrants before counting their votes, and by accepting the statements of individuals that they are eligible even when the state has records showing they are not, such as non-citizens and felons. We have spent considerable time with our attorneys refining the arguments that connect the precise text of the Minnesota Constitution (“[Ineligible] persons shall not be entitled or permitted to vote at any election in this state.”) to the statutes that in fact...

The Internal Revenue Service may have been caught violating federal tax law: In October 2010, the agency sent a database on 501(c)(4) social-welfare groups containing confidential taxpayer information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to documents obtained by a House panel. The information was transmitted in advance of former IRS official Lois Lerner’s meeting the same month with Justice Department officials about the possibility of using campaign-finance laws to prosecute certain non-profit groups. E-mails between Lerner and Richard Pilger, the director of the Justice Department’s election crimes branch, obtained through a subpoena to Attorney General Eric Holder, show Lerner asking about the format in which...

It wasn’t the biggest story following Tuesday’s elections in various states, but it was the biggest and most-ignored non-story. Mississippi’s new voter ID law got its first run in the June 3 primary, and the sky did not fall. Despite the tiresome and disproven claims by opponents that such laws cause wholesale voter disenfranchisement and are intended to suppress votes, Mississippi “sailed through” its first test of the new ID requirements, according to The Clarion Ledger, the newspaper of Jackson, Miss. Aside from being able to use any form of government-issued photo ID, like every other state with ID requirements,...

“The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act was passed in to law nearly five decades ago…The real voter fraud is people trying to deny our rights by making voting harder in the first place.” President Barack Obama, 2014 National Action Network Convention in New York City. Though many believe them to be an effort at voter disenfranchisement, a recent poll suggest most Americans are actually in support of voter identification laws, perhaps making them harder to combat. A total of 31 states have active voter ID laws....

GALVESTON, Texas — A man who voted absentee in Texas and Minnesota during the 2012 general election then touted his bogus balloting on Facebook has pleaded guilty. A judge in Galveston on Tuesday fined Richard Alan Collier $4,000 after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of Texas election law. Collier, who pleaded guilty to attempt to commit illegal voting, claimed residence in both states when seeking absentee ballots for the November 2012 election. Authorities say Collier then voted in Anoka (uh-NOH'-kuh) County, Minnesota, and in Galveston County. Prosecutors in Galveston say a tip that Collier posted a Facebook message...

Ukrainian officials say that the false results reported by Russian mainstream media were planned in advance. Ukraine’s State Security Service said Russian hackers attempted to infiltrate national election commission computer servers. Ukrainian IT specialists, however, neutralized the attempt.

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Seattle man pleaded guilty on Thursday to identity fraud and voter intimidation for forged letters he sent to 200 Republican donors in Florida that told them they were ineligible to vote in the 2012 presidential election. Angered by what he believed was an attempt to suppress Hispanic voter turnout for Democratic Party candidates, James Baker Jr. in 2012 created false voter eligibility letters purporting to be from elections authorities, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. Baker, 58, entered his plea in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and faces...

No word on who she voted for, but there is one party that is committed to fighting for the rights of the undead to vote while denouncing any Voter ID measure as racist. Evelyn E. Burwell’s family was surprised to learn she voted in the 2012 general and primary elections. They knew she was an avid voter, but she’s been dead since 1997. Burwell is one of about 6,100 deceased people still registered to vote in Nassau County, a Newsday computer analysis shows. The former Wantagh resident, who died at age 74, is also among roughly 270 people that records show voted in...

RICHMOND, Va. — Some 308,000 Virginia voters are also registered elsewhere, according to an analysis of 22 states’ election records. The finding follows Watchdog.org’s report of 44,000 people who appear to be registered in both Virginia and Maryland. The latest survey found the 308,000 double registrations by matching names, birth dates and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. The Virginia Voters Alliance, which reported the results, identified “big gaps” in the voter-registration process. “Say you move to Kansas and tell the election office there that you were registered in Virginia when you submit your Kansas voter-registration form,” explained...

The Swedish election board in Solna should have received a complete data file of Swedish citizens voting in Denmark by 28 April the latest. It did not arrive. “We must have access to this data 30 days before the day of election to be able to make up our register of electors in time,” Hanns Lejsater, an official at the election authority, told Swedish paper Goteborgs-Posten. […] The Swedish election board is missing data about possible double voters from 10 EU countries, mostly the newest members of the EU but also Denmark and the UK. …

Seven out of ten registered voters support voter ID laws, which makes them racist or something. Liberals rail against these policies that help maintain the integrity of our constitutional republic, but the vast majority disagree. The survey conducted by Fox News found a majority in every demographic (race, age, income, sex, political bent) support voter ID laws—including 53% of self-described liberals, 70% of men, and 71% of women. …

Chicago Scoop: Obama to Chicago May 22 for Senate Democrats fundraisers Lynn Sweet @lynnsweet | Email WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama returns to Chicago on May 22 to headline big money fund-raisers to benefit the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Sen. Dick Durbin's re-election warchest. Obama, who touched down in Chicago in March for funders to bankroll the Democratic National Committee, will appear at a reception at the home of Michael and Tanya Polsky and a dinner at the home of Fred Eychaner, the CEO of Newsweb Corporation and one of the biggest Democratic donors in the nation. Obama needs the Senate...

The concept of a 2016 election featuring a Marxist like Hillary Clinton against a liberal RINO like Jeb Bush or Chris Christie is so terrifying that it is tempting to grab at any candidate outside the GOP establishment. But some potential alternative candidates may not be much less pernicious, to judge by rhetoric we have been hearing from Rand Paul: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) believes that the GOP’s focus on voter fraud is “offending” Americans, especially blacks. “Everybody’s gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing,” Paul told The New York Times in an interview on Friday. “I think it’s...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A Davidson County election worker has been fired after problems with electronic poll books allowed some people to vote twice. Election officials have said that some people were allowed to vote twice because an outside vendor did not update electronic poll books with early voters before Election Day. The fired worker did not cross check early voting tallies against the poll books. "So there were procedures that were not followed on their side and on our side," said Administrator of Elections Kent Wall. Last Tuesday was Wall's first election at the helm. He says he still trusts...

A belated response to the uproar after Rand Paul told an NYT reporter that the GOP’s voter-ID push was “offending people.” After reading this, I think the Guardian has his position right: “Rand Paul believes in voter ID laws. He just doesn’t think Republicans should talk about them so much.”Good enough? [T]his statement comes from Paul’s former chief of staff and current PAC director.“Senator Paul was having a larger discussion about criminal justice reform and restoration of voting rights, two issues he has been speaking about around the country and pushing for in state and federal legislation. “In the...

Ukrainian ministry of defense managed to intercept conversation between O Barkashov, coordinator from Russia (phone number 79151328336) and local executor in Donetsk D. Boitsov (0994721504). During the conversation, in very dirty and brutal manner, they talk about the upcoming referendum. Boitsov says that he is not ready for the referendum and that a major part of Ukrainian special forces is near town. Boitsov also adds that he is going to call off the referendum. In response, Barkashov says that Boitsov can't call off the referendum and that it is not necessary to perform it the legit way. He says that...

MADISON, Wis. -- State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen on Monday appealed a two-week-old decision striking down Wisconsin's voter ID law. Van Hollen had promised an appeal as soon as U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman in Milwaukee blocked the voter ID law for violating the U.S. Constitution and federal Voting Rights Act. Monday's filing puts the case before the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. Van Hollen also asked Adelman to suspend his ruling while the appeal proceeds, saying his decision was too broad. In his ruling, Adelman expressed skepticism that any voter ID law could pass court muster...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., condemned his party's push for voter identification laws as "completely crazy" Friday, saying it's "wrong for Republicans to go too crazy on this issue because it's offending people."The comments, delivered during an interview with The New York Times, make Paul the most prominent member of the GOP to speak out against a crusade that has energized the Republican base but alienated some of the young and minority voters the party hopes to court.Notably, Paul disputed the political wisdom behind voter ID laws, but he did not question their substance or merit. He's previously said it is...